West Australian Stephen Dartnall has this week returned to the scene of the best result of his career.
In 2016, Dartnall struck gold on Sunday in Kalgoorlie. Firing a final round six-under 66, Dartnall came from five shots behind to win the TX Civil & Logistics WA PGA Championship by one shot from Queenslander Aaron Pike and New South Welshman Lindsay Wilson.
“The way I finished last year was good. I hit a 3-iron in pretty close to the pin on 18, I just missed the eagle but luckily it was good enough to win by one,” Dartnall said. “I had a lot of good chances in the past but never really capitalised. It was good to finally get the monkey off my back.
“The win has taken a bit of pressure off because I know that I have status for this year. Nothing has really changed but it has given me some extra confidence.”
Dartnall returns this year as the reigning champion and will defend a title for the first time in his career. Winning back-to-back is a challenging feat, the most recent player to achieve it was Kim Felton who won three WA PGA titles in a row from 2002-2004. Felton is now forging a career outside of the ropes, running the WA PGA Championship as the WA/SA state manager for the PGA of Australia.
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“I don’t feel any extra pressure to win this week. You look through the history of tournaments and it is hard to win back-to-back,” added Dartnall, who had his first look at the layout for 2017 in the pro-am today. “I haven’t been on the course yet but I am sure that it is all the same. It’s looking in excellent condition and I have been hearing good things. It’s always nice to come back to where you have won before.
“I have been playing some pro-ams and I’ve been playing solid so I will try and put it all together this week and sink some putts.”
Dartnall is joined at the WA PGA Championship by former US PGA Tour player Jarrod Lyle and Ashley Hall who will play in the British Open in July as well as West Aussie favourites Stephen Leaney, Jarryd Felton and rising amateur star Min Woo Lee.
The WA PGA Championship begins tomorrow at Kalgoorlie Golf Course with Dartnall teeing off his title defence at 7.20am alongside Deyen Lawson and Michael Long.
Players are competing for $110,000, Official World Golf Ranking Points plus status on the ISPS Handa PGA Tour of Australasia until the end of the 2018 season.
For live scores from tomorrow, visit pga.org.au
